638.16 


library 

or  Tv* 

HARVEST.  W8?«>wt . * 


HANDLING, 

MARKETING. 


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CHARLES  and  C.  P.  DADANT, 

HAMILTON,  ILLINOIS. 


We  have  handled  and  sold  45,000  lbs.  of  Extracted  Honey  in 
three  years  ;  read  how  we  did  it. 


UNIVERSITY  Or 
ILLINOIS  LIBRARY 
>v  -CHAMPAIGN 


TO  OUR  BROTHER  BEE-KEEPERS. 


j£N  bringing  this  small  pamphlet  before  the  public,  we 
do  not  lay  claim  to  any  discoveries  or  wonderful  improve¬ 
ments.  We  simply  wish  to  give  the  reader  a  description  of 
our  modus  operandi ,  in  that  branch  of  bee-culture,  in  which 
we  are  most  successful  ourselves.  The  extensive  production 
and  sale  of  extracted  honey  has  heretofore  been  considered 
by  many  as  unprofitable,  on  account  of  the  difficulties  attend¬ 
ing  it.  We  have  overcome  most  of  these  difficulties,  and 
now  offer  our  experience  to  the  public.  There  is  much  yet 
to  be  done  and  learnt,  and  we  hope,  that  a  thorough  examina¬ 
tion  and  criticism  of  our  methods,  will  lead  to  still  better 
methods,  thereby  proving  advantageous  both  to  the  public 
and  to  ourselves.  We  therefore  ask  for  an  open  criticism  of 
all  that  is  contained  in  this  work, 


EXTRACTED  HONEY. 


Long  before  man  began  to  keep  bees,  he  had  discovered 
the  value  of  both  of  the  substances  of  which  the  product  of 
bees  is  composed — honey  and  bees-wax.  Honey  was  then  the 
only  sugar  known,  and  was  held  in  great  esteem,  on  that  ac¬ 
count.  Bees-wax,  as  a  sweet  scenting  luminiferous  substance, 
far  superior  to  the  oils,  or  the  crude  grease  of  animals,  then 
in  use,  was  greatly  appreciated  by  the  priests  of  that  epoch, 
and  placed  among  the  best  offerings  required  to  please  the 
gods.  The  custom  of  offering  wax,  or  wax  candles,  continued 
to  this  day  by  some  churches,  especially  by  the  Greek  and 
Roman  catholic  churches,  caused  for  centuries  the  levy  of 
heavy  taxes,  payable  in  bees-wax,  in  all  the  countries,  where 
the  inhabitants  kept  bees.  Some  countries,  in  Europe,  had  to 
pay  to  the  church,  every  year,  as  much  as  several  hundred 
thousand  pounds  of  bees-wax.  Of  course  such  taxes  com¬ 
pelled  the  bee-keepers  to  study  the  means  of  separating  the 
honey  from  the  wax,  with  as  little  waste  as  possible. 

Different  ways  were  used.  The  custom  of  brim  stoning  the 
bees,  to  get  the  contents  of  the  hives,  was  then  prevalent.  - 
Different  grades  of  honey  were  thus  harvested  by  the  most 
careful  bee-keepers.  The  light  colored  combs  were  pressed 
and  strained  first,  to  get  a  light  colored  and  pure  honey,  then 
the  combs  which  had  contained  the  brood  were  in  turn 
pressed,  producing  turbid  honey  of  inferior  quality. 

These  primitive  methods  were  afterwards  greatly  amelior¬ 
ated,  as  for  instance,  in  the  French  province  of  Gatinais,  where 
the  bee  keepers  used  the  heat  of  the  sun  to  melt  the  combs, 
and  separate  the  honey  from  the  melted  wax.  The  choice 
honey  obtained  in  Gatinais,  from  the  sainfoin ,  cannot  be  ex¬ 
celled  by  our  best  extracted  clover  honey,  as  to  color  and  taste, 
and  is  altogether  sold  in  Paris. 

Such  a  good  product,  becoming  a  staple  article,  helped  the 
sale,  on  the  French  markets,  of  the  different  qualities  of 
strained  honey;  while  comb  honey,  difficult  to  handle  and 
to  send  far  away,  on  account  of  its  fragility,  had  to  be  con- 


EXTRACTED  HONEY . 


\\ 


sumed  at  home ;  or  to  be  sold  in  the  neighboring  cities.  Hence 
the  facility,  for  the  French  bee-keepers,  to  dispose  readily  and 
at  paying  prices,  of  their  entire  crop  of  strained  honey  of 
different  grades;  the  dark  honey,  from  buck-wheat  and  heath, 
being  used  to  make  pain  d'epices ,  a  kind  of  ginger-bread,  man¬ 
ufactured  in  every  town  ;  and  the  most  turbid  finding  its  place 
in  the  drug  store,  for  veterinary  purposes.  But  the  demand 
being  ahead  of  the  supply,  especially  when  the  season  was 
unfavorable  for  bees,  Europe  imported  strained  honey  from 
Chili,  and  Cuba,  and  lately,  extracted  honey  from  California. 

Such  were  the  causes  which  created  an  easy  market  for 
strained  and  extracted  honey  in  Europe  ;  and  taught  the  peo¬ 
ple  to  prefer  granulated  strained  honey,  to  the  best  comb 
honey. 

These  causes  did  not  exist  in  this  country.  Bees  were 
scarce  here  at  first.  The  American  settlers  had  too  much 
work  on  hand  to  care  much  for  bees.  The  few  who  owned 
a  limited  number  of  colonies,  brimstoned  one  of  them  occa¬ 
sionally,  and  consumed  the  honey  at  home.  The  more 
extensive  bee  owners  could  sell  some  broken  combs  to  their 
neighbors,  or  a  few  pounds  of  strained  honey  to  the  drug¬ 
gist,  who  vvas  not  very  hard  to  please,  being  accustomed  to 
buy  Cuba  honey,  harvested  with  the  most  slovenly  careless¬ 
ness.  By  and  by,  however,  the  number  of  bees  increased, 
owing  to  the  very  favorable  condition  of  the  rough  country. 
The  wild  woods  soon  swarmed  with  bees  in  the  u  hollow 
gum  trees,”  and  the  bee-hunter  made  his  appearance.  Bees 
were  hunted  as  other  game,  and  thousands  of  trees  fell  under 
the  hunter’s  ax,  to  yield  the  sweets  that  they  contained.  This 
rough-and-ready  bee-keeping,  or  rather  bee-killing,  produced 
large  quantities  of  honey ;  but,  as  this  honey  was  nearly 
always  badly  broken  up  and  mixed  with  pollen,  dead  bees, 
and  rotten  wood,  it  became  customary  to  boil  the  honey,  so  as 
to  force  the  impurities  and  the  wax  to  rise  on  top  with  the 
scum.  Hence  the  cheap,  liquid,  dirty  and  opaque  strained 
honey,  dark  in  color  and  strong  in  taste.  By  the  side  of  this 
unwholesome  article,  a  little  fancy  comb  honey  was  sold,  and 
this  led  to  a  national  preference  for  comb  honey.  Moreover, 
to  add  to  the  general  dislike  of  strained  honey,  adulteration 
set  in— adulteration  the  scourge  of  free  America,  caused  by 
our  love  of  freedom,  which  is  at  fault  when  it  gives  us  the 
freedom  of  committing  wrongs. 


4 


EXTRACTED  HONEY . 


Hence  the  demand  and  the  greater  value  of  honey  in  the 
comb;  the  buyer  being  then,  and  then  only,  sure  to  ge t*a 
pure  and  good  article,  aside  of  the  attractive  seduction  that  it 
presents.  . 

Such  were  the  different  conditions  of  honeyed  affairs,  on 
each  continent,  the  Old  World  and  the  New.  In  Europe 
strained  candied  honey  was  a  staple  article,  and  comb  honey 
an  article  of  fancy,  difficult  to  sell  at  paying  figures,  uncer¬ 
tain  in  its  transportation  and  in  its  sales.  In  this  country, 
while  liquid  strained  honey  was  a  drug  on  the  market, 
comb  honey  presented  the  same  difficulties  and  inconvenience 
as  in  Europe. 

Yet  in  both  countries  the  bee  keepers  were,  every  year, 
more  and  more  convinced  that  bees,  to  produce  wax,  aside  of 
the  time  occupied  in  the  work,  had  to  eat  large  quantities  of 
honey.  Berlepsch,  in  Germany,  had  made  experiments  and 
found  that  to  produce  a  pound  of  bees-wax,  bees  had  con¬ 
sumed  at  least  10  pounds  of  honey,  while  Dumas  and  Milne 
Edwards,  both  French  scientists,  had  found  one  pound  of  bees¬ 
wax  the  product  of  20  pounds  of  honey. 

In  presence  of  such  facts,  every  practical  bee-keeper  desired 
that  some  means  be  devised,  to  empty  the  combs,  and  return 
them  to  the  bees,  to  be  filled  again  and  again;  when  Major 
Hruschka,  of  Dolo,  near  Venice,  Italy,  invented  his  machine, 

THE  HONEY  EXTRACTOR. 

It  happened  in  this  wise:  He  had  given  to  his  son,  a  small 
piece  of  unsealed  comb  honey,  on  a  plate.  The  boy  put  the 
plate  in  his  basket,  and  swung  the  basket  around  him,  like  a 
sling.  Hruschka  then  noticed  that  the  honey  had  been 
drained  out  by  the  motion,  and  concluded  that  combs  could 
be  emptied  by  a  rotary  machine. 

This  invention  was  hailed,  in  the  whole  bee-keeping  world, 
as  equal  to,  and  the  complement  of  the  invention  of  movable 
frames ;  and  it  fully  deserved  this  honor. 

As  soon  as  we  heard  of  the  discovery,  we  had  a  machine 
made.  Of  course,  this  machine  was  not  so  elegant  as  those 
which  are  now  offered  by  our  manufacturers  It  was  a  bulky 
and  cumbersome  affair ;  four  feet  in  diameter  and  three  feet 
high  ;  yet  it  worked  to  our  satisfaction,  and  we  became  con¬ 
vinced,  by  actual  trial,  of  the  great  gain  which  could  be 
obtained,  by  returning  the  empty  combs  to  the  bees. 

Let  us  say  here,  that  we  found,  at  first,  that  the  prolit,  de- 


EXTRACTED  HONEY. 


rived  from  the  use  of  the  extractor,  was  many  times  greater 
than  we  had  anticipated  ;  for.  we,  together  with  a  great  many 
others,  had  committed  the  fault  ot  extracting,  before  honey 
was  altogether  evaporated.  Like  Novice,  who  thought  of 
emptying  his  cistern  to  put  the  overflow  of  his  extracted 
honey,  we  had  to  go  to  town  again  and  again,  for  jars  and 
barrels,  to  lodge  our  crop.  But  experience  has  taught  us 
that  we  cannot  get  a  good  merchantable  article,  unless  all,  or 
nearly  all  the  cells  containing  the  honey  are  sealed ;  and  that, 
if  we  give  to  bees  empty  combs,  to  store  their  honey,  we  will 
And,  by  comparing  the  products  of  colonies  who  have  to 
build  their  combs,  with  those  of  colonies  who  always  have 
empty  combs  to  fill,  that  these  last  produce  at  least  twice  as 
much  as  the  others. 

A  little  consideration  will  readily  show,  to  the  intelligent 
bee-keeper,  the  great  advantages  given  to  the  bees  by  furnish¬ 
ing  them  with  a  full  supply  of  empty  combs.  To  illustrate 
all  these  advantages,  let  us  compare  two  colonies  of  bees,  of 
equal  strength,  at  the  beginning  of  the  honey  season ;  one 
with  empty  boxes,  the  other  with  empty  comb  in  the  boxes. 

The  two  colonies  have  been  breeding  plentifully,  and  har¬ 
vesting  a  large  quantity  of  pollen,  and  a  little  honey,  for  several 
weeks  past.  The  brood  chamber  is  full  from  top  to  bottom. 
After  perhaps  one  rainy  day,  the  honey  crop  begins  in  full. 
The  bees  that  have  been  given  empty  combs,  can  go  right  up 
in  them,  and  begin  storing,  just  as  fast  as  they  bring  their 
honey  from  the  fields.  Not  a  minute  is  lost;  and  as  they  have 
plenty  of  storing  room, there  is  no  need  of  their  crowding  the 
queen  out  of  her  breeding  cells. 

In  the  other  hive,  however,  there  is  indeed  plenty  of  empty 
space  in  the  upper  story ;  but  before  this  space  can  be  put  to 
any  use,  it  has  to  be  first  partly  filled  with  combs.  Before  a 
half  day  is  over,  the  greater  part  of  the  bees  have  harvested . 
and  brought  to  their  newly  hatched  companions,  all  the 
honey  that  the  latter  can  possibly  hold  in  their  sacks.  What 
shall  they  do  with  the  surplus  ?  Only  one  thing  can  be  done. 
They  have  to  go  up  into  that  surplus  story,  and  hang  there 
for  twenty-four  hours,  waiting  for  this  honey  to  be  trans¬ 
formed  into  bees-wax,  by  the  wonderful  action  of  these 
admirable  little  stomachs,  whose  work  man  cannot  imitate, 
despite  all  his  science.  But,  while  this  slow  transformation 
is  going  on,  while  the  small  scales  of  wax  are  emerging  from 


UPMt  t!  t  H. 


6 


EXTRACTED  HONEY . 


under  the  rings  of  the  abdomen  of  each  industrious  little 
worker;  while  their  sisters  are  slowly  but  busily  carrying, 
moulding  and  arranging  the  warm  little  pieces  of  wax  in 
their  respective  places,  in  order  to  build  the  frail  comb  ;  dur¬ 
ing  all  this  time,  the  honey  is  flowing  in  the  blossoms,  and  the 
other  colony  is  fast  increasing  its  supply  of  sweets.  Mean¬ 
while,  the  few  bees,  which  have  found  a  place  for  their  load, 
go  back  after  more,  and  finding  no  room,  they  watch  for  the 
appearance  of  each  hatching  bee,  from  its  cell,  and  at  once 
fill  that  cell  with  honey  ;  thus  depriving  the  queen  of  her 
breeding  room,  and  forcing  her  to  remain  idle,  at  a  time 
when  she  should  be  laying  most  busily. 

The  loss  is  therefore  treble.  First,  this  colony  loses  the 
present  work  of  all  the  bees  which  have  to  remain  inside  to 
make  wax.  Secondly,  it  loses  the  honey  of  which  this  wax 
is  made.  Thirdly,  it  loses  the  production  of  thousands  of 
workers,  by  depriving  the  queen  of  her  breeding  room,  in 
the  brood  chamber.  All  this,  for  what  purpose  ?  To  enable 
the  owner  to  eat  his  honey  with  the  wax ;  when  by  the  agree¬ 
ment  of  everybody,  it  is  known  that  wax  is  tasteless  and 
indigestible. 

One  more  word  in  regard  to  the  loss  of  production,  by  the 
crowding  of  the  queen.  This  loss  is  two-fold  in  itself.  When 
the  bees  find  that  the  queen  is  crowded  out  of  her  breeding 
room,  they  become  more  readily  induced  to  make  prepara¬ 
tions  for  swarming. 

It  is  then  that  a  large  number  of  young  bees  would  be 
necessary  to  make  up  for  the  loss  which  the  colony  will  sus¬ 
tain,  in  the  departure  of  the  swarm ;  and  yet  the  diminished 
number  of  eggs  laid,  produces  exactly  the  reverse  of  the 
desired  result. 

There  is  perhaps  a  fourth  item  of  loss,  in  the  failing  to 
furnish  empty  combs  to  this  colony,  and  that  is  when  the 
season  is  not  veiy  favorable.  Many  practical  bee-keepers 
have  noticed  that,  in  rather  unfavorable  seasons,  it  is  very 
difficult  to  induce  a  colony  to  work  in  an  empty  surplus  box, 
whilst  they  would  work  in  it  very  readily  if  this  box  was 
furnished  with  combs.  It  is  a  question  which  may  remain 
doubtful,  whether  the  bees  do  not  sometimes,  in  such  cases, 
remain  idle  for  a  day  or  two,  rather  than  begin  building  comb 
in  a  box  which  they  do  hot  expect  to  be  able  to  fill. 


EXTRACTED  HONEY . 


7 


All  these  facts  being  proved  to  our  satifaction,  we  resolved 
to  manage  our  bees  so  as  to  produce  extracted  honey.  So  far 
we  had  used,  on  our  hfves,  surplus  boxes  &%la  Quinby — we 
mean,  glassed  on  four  sides,  and  also  Adair  section  boxes, 
which  sections  could  be  taken  apart,  when  the  combs  were 
built  straight  in  them.  We  were  anxious  to  get  rid  of  the 
expense  of  making  these  boxes,  of  the  annoyance  of  finding 
some  of  them  with  combs  only  partly  sealed,  or  soiled  by  the 
hatching  of  brood,  or  by  a  few  cells  of  pollen,  or  even  by  an 
occasional  moth  worm.  The  bees  were  slow  in  building 
their  combs  in  such  boxes.  They  were  slow  in  leaving  them, 
when  taken  out  of  the  hive.  Sometimes  the  queen  was  in 
one  of  them,  and,  after  useless  attempts  to  incite  the  bees  to 
leave,  we  had  to  demolish  the  box,  to  lind  the  queen.  At  the 
present  day,  part  of  these  troubles,  in  producing  comb  honey, 
is  obviated  by  the  use  of  sections  and  separators ;  but  such 
implements  are  expensive  and  cumbersome ;  the  annoyance, 
which  they  cause,  is  not  counterbalanced  by  the  higher  price 
of  comb  honey,  when  we  take  into  account  the  difference  in 
the  amount  of  the  crop. 

Every  year  a  part  of  the  sections  contain  unsealed  combs, 
which  have  to  be  carefully  preserved,  for  the  ensuing  year, 
away  from  dust,  or  mice,  or  insects.  All  these  sections, 
together  with  those  of  marketable  honey,  have  to  be  cleaned 
of  the  adhering  bee-glue.  This  operation  is  very  delicate — 
not  to  scratch  a  single  cell ;  yet,  although  we  handle  our  sec¬ 
tions  with  the  greatest  care,  there  is  always  more  or  less 
leakage,  and  this  leakage,  coming  from  sections  piled  upon 
one  another,  all  the  boxes  under  those  leaking  are  besmeared 
with  honey.  Such  an  accident  is  irksome;  yet  it  is  small 
when  compared  to  the  leaking  of  the  sections  after  they  have 
been  handled  by  railroad  men. 

Where  is  the  bee-keeper  who  never  had  to  complain'  more 
or  less  of  the  breaking  and  slashing  of  combs  by  the  rail¬ 
road  employees?  We  do  not  lay  the  blame  op  these  poor 
fellows,  but  on  the  managers  of  railroads,  who  usually  employ 
only  one  man  where  two  would  be  almost  indispensable,  and 
also  dispense  with  overseers,  while  they  pocket  large  profits. 

We  have  extensively  traveled  in  Europe  ;  but  nowhere  have 
we  seen  the  dealers  and  the  travelers  so  completely  subservi¬ 
ent  to  the  railroads  kings,  as  in  this  country.  Such  evil  is 
difficult  to  mend ;  for  the  greatest  number  of  our  papers 


8 


EXTRACTED  HONEY. 


refuse  the  insertion  of  articles  exposing  the  railroads,  for  fear 
of  losing  their  free  passes,  or  their  advertisements  of  railroad 
business.  But  the  people  will  open  their  eyes  sooner  or  later, 
and  put  an  end  to  this.  But  we  digress. 

We  had  noticed  that  a  strong  colony  of  bees,  which  does 
not  swarm,  harvests  more  honey  than  a  colony  which  has 
swarmed,  together  with  the  swarm.  We,  therefore,  concluded 
that  it  was  best  to  prevent  our  bees  from  swarming,  as  nearly 
as  possible ;  and,  by  our  method,  we  succeeded  to  our  entire 
satisfaction. 

For  years  we  had  accustomed  to  melt  all  the  drone  comb, 
after  taking  it  out  of  the  brood  chamber,  and  replacing  it 
with  worker  comb;  but  as  soon  as  we  resolved  to  raise 
extracted  honey  almost  exclusively,  we  ceased  to  melt  even 
the  smallest  fragments  of  drone  comb,  whether  new  or  old. 
All  were  fastened  in  frames  six  inches  deep,  to  be  used  in 
the  surplus  chamber,  and  we  have  now  several  thousands  of 
these  combs,  some  of  which  have  already  passed  fifteen  or 
twenty  times  through  the  extractor,  and  are  now  as  good  as 
at  first,  nay,  even  better ;  for  some  were  very  dark,  which  are 
lighter  in  color  now,  on  account  of  the  dark  cells  having  been 
shaved  by  the  honey  knife  and  mended,  by  the  bees,  with 
new  wax. 

To  prevent  the  moths  from  injuring  these  combs,  we 
keep  them  on  the  hives  during  the  whole  summer;  the  bees 
take  care  of  them,  and  we  keep  them,  in  the  winter,  carefully 
piled  against  mice,  in  cold  rooms,  where  the  cold  of  winter 
destroys  the  eggs  of  the  moth. 

When  the  honey  crop  begins,  generally  about  the  first  of 
June,  we  put  these  surplus  combs  in  half  story  racks  on  our 
hives.  As  soon  as  the  combs  of  one  of  these  boxes  are  about 
three-fourths  full  we  put  another  rack  under  the  first,  and 
sometimes  a  third  under  the  second.  All  this  without  wait¬ 
ing  for  the  honey  to  be  sealed ;  but  we  never  remove  the 
honey,  to  extract  it,  until  the  crop  is  at  an  end,  for  we  want 
to  get  our  honey  entirely  ripened. 

It  is  very  important  to  leave  the  honey  on  the  hive  until  the 
crop  is  fully  over,  in  order  to  obtain  honey  that  will  keep  and 
granulate  thoroughly.  When  the  honey  is  entirely  sealed, 
however,  it  can  be  removed  and  extracted  at  once ;  but  if  it  is 
not  all  sealed,  it  is  usually  safer  to  leave  it  until  the  crop  stops. 
The  reason  of  this  is  obvious.  Honey  is  evaporated,  or  ri- 


HARVESTING . 


9 


pened,  by  the  forced  circulation  of  air,  caused  by  the  fanning 
of  the  bees  through  the  hive,  in  connection  with  the  great 
heat  generated  by  them.  As  fast  as  honey  evaporates,  it  dimin¬ 
ishes  in  volume,  and  as  long  as  the  bees  continue  their  harvest, 
they  constantly  bring  in  fresh  unripened,  or  watery  honey, 
which  they  store  in  the  partly  filled  cells  that  contain  honey 
already  evaporated.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  unsealed  honey 
after  the  crop  is  over,  is  then  as  ripe  as  honey  sealed  during 
the  crop,  and  sometimes  riper. 


HARVESTING. 

The  extracting,  to  be  done  swiftly,  requires  the  work  of 
four  persons :  three  men  and  a  boy.  When  this  work  is  done 
at  a  time  when  the  bees  have  ceased  to  make  honey,  as  is  al¬ 
ways  the  case  with  us,  great  care  has  to  be  exercised  not  to 
leave  any  honey  within  the  reach  of  robber  bees.  The  work 
of  opening  the  hives,  removing  the  combs,  and  brushing  off 
the  bees,  has  to  be  done  quietly,  but  swiftly.  The  receptacles 
for  combs  should  each  have  a  cover,  and  the  hive  should  be 
closed  and  its  entrance  reduced,  as  promptly  as  possible.  In 
this  way,  there  is  not  the  least  danger  of  robbing;  but  if  rob¬ 
bing  is  once  begun,  by  some  carelessness  or  forgetfulness  of 
the  operator,  the  work  has  to  be  stopped  until  it  has  subsided. 
A  basin  of  water  and  a  towel,  placed  near  at  hand,  are  found 
to  be  very  convenient,  when  the  hives  afre  very  full ;  as  the 
operator,  or  the  carrier,  sometimes  get  their  fingers  sticky 
with  honey. 

The  operator  opens  the  hive;  takes  out  the  combs  and 
brushes  the  bees  off,  with  a  brush  made  of  asparagus  tops. 
He  then  places  the  combs  in  a  comb  bucket.  The  carrier  takes 
the  bucket  to  the  house,  and  places  the  combs  in  empty  racks, 
on  a  carpet  made  of  cheap,  painted  cloth,  which  is  spread  over 
the  floor  of  the  room,  to  prevent  it  from  being  daubed  with 
honey.  He  then  returns  with  his  empty  bucket,  to  help  the 
operator,  or  carry  away  another  full  bucket. 


10 


EXTRACTED  HONEY. 


Our  hives  are  very  large ;  the  brood  chamber  contains  about 
3,000  cubic  inches ;  we  use  a  division  board,  to  reduce  the 
space  in  winter  and  spring,  and  we  extract  also  from  the  brood 
chamber,  where  there  is  often  too  much  honey  after  the  crop 
is  over.  We  sometimes  even  extract  from  combs  containing 
brood;  though  we  prefer  not  to  do  this.  We  never  noticed 
any  loss  of  worker  brood,  either  by  running  the  combs  through 
the  extractor,  or  by  keeping  them  out  of  the  hive  for  a  whole 
day.  If  a  few  worker  larvae  are  displaced  by  the  rotation, 
the  bees  push  them  back  to  the  bottom  of  the  cells.  It  is  not 
the  same  with  the  drone  larvae :  unless  the  machine  is  run  ex¬ 
tremely  slowly,  they  are  thrown  out  of  the  comb.  In  all  cases, 
when  there  is  brood,  the  crank  must  be  turned  slowly. 

In  the  extracting  room,  a  man,  or  a  lad,  the  shaver,  as  we 
call  him,  uncaps  the  combs,  as  fast  as  they  are  brought.  He 
has  a  large  painted  cloth,  or  oil-cloth  apron,  and  stands  before 
the  capping  can.  The  capping  can  is  formed  of  a  lower  can  B, 
24  inches  wide  and  18  inches  high  with  a  slanting  bottom,  a 
faucet  and  a  central  pivot  C ;  on  this  lower  can  is  placed  an¬ 
other  can  A,  23  inches  wide  and  18  inches  high,  with  a  coarse 
wire-cloth  bottom,  resting  at  the  center  on  the  pivot  C.  The 
upper  can  acts  as  a  large  sieve.  On  the  top  of  it  is  placed  a 
wooden  frame  D,  notched,  so  as  to  fit  on  the  edges  of  the  can. 
It  is  on  this  frame  that  the  combs  are  uncapped,  and  the  cap¬ 
pings  fall  in  the  sieve,  where  the  honey  drains  out  of  them, 
into  the  lower  can.  Our  capping  can  is  meant  to  hold  the 
cappings  of  three  whole  days  of  extracting. 


HARVESTING.  11 


In  this  small  pamphlet,  we  do  not  give  any  engraving  or 
description  of  a  honey  extractor ;  for  the  reason  that  there  are 
eight  or  ten  different  patterns  of  good  extractors,  made  by  as 
many  different  parties,  and  these  extractors,  though  unlike  in 
construction,  are  nearly  equal  in  their  advantages.  We  will 
therefore  refer  the  reader  to  the  advertisements,  at  the  end  of 
this  book,  or  to  the  bee-papers,  for  the  engravings  and  descrip¬ 
tion  of  honey  extractors.  We  will  simply  say  that  a  good  ex¬ 
tractor  should  be  easily  covered,  easily  fastened  to  the  floor* 
easily  emptied  to  the  last  drop,  and  easily  cleaned,  to  fulfill  lb 
main  requisites. 

In  regard  to  the  honey  or  uncapping  knife,  however,  justice 


compels  us  to  say  that,  so  far,  to  our  knowledge,  there  is  but 
one  which  is  really  practical,  that  is  the  Bingham  honey 
knife.  This  knife  does  away  with  the  annoyance  of  having 
the  cappings  stick  to  the  comb  again,  after  having  been 


12  EXTRACTED  HO  NET. 

shaved  oft',  because  it  is  made  with  a  bevel,  which  causes  the 
shaver  to  hold  it  in  a  slanting  position,  so  that  the  cappings 
cannot  stick  to  the  comb  again,  unless  purposely  allowed  to 
do  so. 

As  soon  as  the  combs  are  uncapped  on  both  sides,  they  are 
put  in  the  extractor,  which  is  turned  by  a  boy.  Care  should 
be  taken  that  the  combs,  that  are  placed  opposite  one  another, 
be  of  equal  weight,  or  nearly  so,  as  the  unequal  weight  of 
combs  causes  the  extractor  to  swing  right  or  left,  and  fa¬ 
tigues  both  the  boy  and  the  machine. 

When  very  white  and  brittle  combs  are  extracted  during 
the  hot  weather,  it  is  sometimes  very  difficult  to  remove 
them  from  the  extractor,  without  breaking  them  ;  because 
the  soft  wax  gets  into  the  meshes  of  the  wire  cloth,  where  it 
remains  imbedded,  and  adheres  very  firmly.  To  obviate  this, 
we  use  movable  sheets  of  coarse  wire  cloth,  of  the  size  of  the 
frames.  We  place  the  brittle  comb  against  these  in  the 
extractor,  and  after  extracting,  remove  the  two  together. 

The  extractor  is  fastened  on  a  high  platform,  so  that  a  pail 
can  be  put  under  the  faucet.  A  barrel  is  in  readiness,  with  a 
large  funnel,  with  a  sieve  over  it.  This  sieve  fits  in  the  fun¬ 
nel  about  on  the  plan  of  the  sieve  of  the  capping  can.  As 
fast  as  a  pail  is  filled,  it  is  emptied,  into  the  funnel,  by  the 
extracting  boy. 

A  good  shaver  can  uncap,  or  shave ,  as  our  hands  usually 
call  it,  as  fast  as  a  boy  can  extract  and  barrel  the  honey. 

The  windows  of  the  room  in  which  we  do  the  extracting, 
are  closed  with  wire  cloth,  nailed  on  a  frame  placed  outside. 
This  frame  is  a  little  wider  and  a  little  longer  than  the  opening 
of  the  window,  so  as  to  be  closely  attached  to  the  window 
frame,  with  screws  or  removable  nails.  The  upright  pieces  of 
this  frame  extend  six  inches  beyond  the  upper  cross-bar,  and 
the  wire  cloth  extends  also  that  far.  This  upper  cross-bar  is 
placed  so  as  to  leave  a  space  of  J-  of  an  inch  between  the 
wire  cloth  and  the  wall,  at  the  top  of  the  window.  The 
frame  is  nailed  with  the  side  of  the  wire  cloth  against  the 
wall.  The  bees,  that  may  have  been  brought  in  with  the 
combs,  or  that  may  have  entered  the  room,  at  some  time  or 
other,  fly  against  the  wire  cloth,  and  soon  find  the  small 
fissure  above,  through  which  they  escape  ;  but,  in  returning, 
they  smell  the  honey  through  the  wire  cloth,  and  forgetting 
that  they  have  escaped  between  the  wire  and  the  wall,  they 


HANDLING  THE  HONEY 


13 


try  in  vain  to  pass  through  the  wire  cloth.  This  device  helps 
the  hands  greatly;  by  ridding  them  very  fast  of  every  bee. 

All  the  extracted  combs  are  piled  in  racks,  on  the  painted 
cloth  carpet;  till  the  day’s  work  is  done.  The  combs  are 
never  put  back  into  the  hives  before  evening,  at  or  after  sun 
down;  to  prevent  too  much  excitement  in  the  apiary.  In 
half  an  hour,  every  hand  helping,  the  whole  number  is  dis¬ 
tributed  in  the  hives  ;  though  we  have  extracted  as  much  as 
1200  pounds  in  a  day. 

To  facilitate  the  placing  of  the  surplus  comb  rack,  or  upper 
half  story,  on  the  hives,  we  have  enlarged  the  thickness  of 
the  rear  and  the  front  boards  of  our  hives,  by  nailing  a 
lath  to  each,  so  as  to  have  at  least  one  inch  of  width,  instead 
of  half  an  inch,  as  it  is  usually,  at  the  place  of  the  rabetting. 
This  broader  surface  helps  us  in  placing  the  painted  cloth,  the 
mat,  and  the  surplus  rack,  and  these  operations  are  always  well 
made,  without  loss  of  time  in  adjusting  these  implements ;  as 
it  is  the  case  when  the  boards  are  narrow,  especially  in  the 
simplicity  hive ;  in  which  the  upper  edges  of  the  side  boards 
are  bevelled  to  receive  a  second  story. 


HANDLING  THE  HONEY. 

The  barrels  that  we  use  for  extracted  honey,  are  oak  barrels 
which  have  contained  alcohol  or  whiskey.  We  allow  them  to 
dry  up  thoroughly  before  using,  and  only  wet  them  slightly, 
when  putting  up  the  honey.  The  barrels  are  then  filled, 
bunged,  and  rolled  into  a  cool  and  dry  cellar,  where  they  re¬ 
main  until  the  honey  selling  season;  which  begins  in  September 
or  October.  The  best  size  of  barrels  used,  are  those  that  con¬ 
tain  from  250  to  300  pounds  of  honey;  as  they  are  more  easily 
handled  than  larger  barrels.  Some  parties  use  cheap  syrup 
barrels,  made  of  soft  wood,  which  are  said  to  leak  less  than 
the  oak  barrels.  They  will  do  very  well  when  the  hon^y  is 
to  be  sold  at  wholesale  ;  as  the  barrel  is  then  usually  lost  by 
the  shipper ;  but  we  have  an  objection  to  them  for  ourselves. 
We  generally  have  to  take  the  honey  out  of  them  after  it  is 


14 


EXTRACTED  HONEY. 


granulated, to  put  it  up  for  retail  trade;  and  these  cheap  barrels 
are  so  easily  damaged  by  taking  the  head  out,  that  they  can¬ 
not  be  used  more  than  one  or  two  seasons,  while  good  iron 
bound  oak  barrels  will  last  for  years,  and  will  never  leak,  if 
managed  as  we  stated  before. 

En  October,  the  honey  of  the  July  crop  is  all  granulated,  and 
that  of  the  September  crop  is  beginning  to  granulate.  There 
are  many  different  opinions  in  regard  to  the  causes  of  granu¬ 
lation  in  honey.  Some  think  that  it  is  effected  by  the  action 
of  light,  but  this  is  certainly  a  mistake,  for  our  honey  only 
sees  the  light  when  extracted,  and  is  then  kept  in  the  dark 
until  solid.  We  are  more  inclined  to  think  that  it  is  the  action 
of  air  which  causes  granulation ;  for  sealed  comb  honey  gen¬ 
erally  remains  liquid.  The  honey  which  we  harvest,  always 
granulates,  without  exception.  We  have  handled  liquid  ex¬ 
tracted  honey,  however,  several  times;  'but  we  have  always 
found  it  to  be  unripe  ;  and  have  laid  it  down  as  a  rule  for  us, 
that  good  honey  should  be  granulated  after  November.  In 
this  we  speak  of  honey  harvested  in  the  Mississippi  valley; 
such  as  clover,  basswood,  heartsease,  golden  rod,  buck¬ 
wheat,  boneset,  etc. 

Of  California  honey,  we  can  say  nothing,  having  never 
handled  it.  But  we  have  handled  Louisiana  honey,  which, 
we  were  told  would  not  granulate  before  a  year,  and  we  had 
scarcely  had  it  three  weeks  in  our  cold  climate, before  it  began 
to  granulate.  The  only  ripe  honey,  which  we  have  found  to 
granulate  with  difficulty,  was  a  lot  of  Spanish  needle  honey, 
which  had  been  extracted  late  in  November.  It  remained 
liquid  until  sold,  a  month  or  two  later,  and  we  ascribed  its  not 
granulating  to  the  late  harvesting  of  it. 

Every  bee-keeper  has  noticed  that  at  times,  honey  candies 
in  very  coarse  and  irregular  granules,  that  look  like  lumps  of 
sugar,  and  which  have  no  adherence  with  one  another,  having 
a  small  amount  of  liquid  honey  interposed  between  them ;  and 
that  at  other  times,  the  candying  is  compact,  and  can  be  com¬ 
pared  to  the  hardening  of  lard. 

Nearly  always,  the  first  kind  of  granulation  is  produced 
in  honey  harvested,  like  clover  or  basswood,  during  the  warm 
months  of  the  year ;  while  the  second  kind  of  granulation  is 
prevalent  in  the  honey  extracted  in  the  fall.  In  France, 
coarsely  granulated  honey  is  held  as  less  valuable  than  the 
fine  grained  honey,  and  there  is  a  good  reason  for  such 


HANDLING  THE  HONEY. 


15 


preference,  for  the  coarsely  granulated  honey  cannot  be  kept 
as  well  as  the  tine  grained. 

In  this  country  also  the  coarsely  granulated  honey  sells 
with  less  facility  —  especially  because  many  ignorant  persons 
imagine  that  it  has  been  adulterated  with  sugar,  and  that 
the  coarse  grains  are  lumps  of  sugar. 

Without  pretending  to  explain  exactly  what  is  the  cause  of 
such  difference,  in  both  of  these  forms  of  granulation,  we 
will  risk  the  suggestion  that,  summer-extracted  honey  hav¬ 
ing  remained  for  months,  motionless,  during  warm  weather, 
a  kind  of  adherence  has  begun,  between  some  of  the  most 
crystallizable  particles,  of  which  it  is  composed;  and  that, 
when  the  cold  congeals  it,  these  particles  join  together  in 
crystallizing,  leaving  the  other  more  watery  particles  free ; 
while  on  the  other  hand,  fall  honey  is  seized  by  cold  and 
entirely  solidified  before  any  of  its  particles  have  had  time  to 
adhere  together. 

Of  course,  to  prevent  such  coarse  granulation  —  too  fre¬ 
quent —  especially  in  basswood  honey,  the  bee-keeper  can 
either  shake  the  honey,  as  soon  as  the  weather  becomes 
cooler,  in  order  to  break  the  adherence  which  has  begun, 
between  some  of  the  granulating  particles  ;  or,  what  is  better 
and  more  certain,  he  can  transfer  the  honey  from  one  barrel 
to  another  at  that  time. 

We  have  noticed  also  that,  in  such  coarsely  granulated 
honey,  the  liquid  parts  come  to  the  surface,  and  absorbing 
moisture  from  the  air,  are  very  apt  to  become  acid  by  ferment¬ 
ing.  But  even  after  granulation,  it  can  easily  be  brought  to 
a  fine  grain  by  melting  it,  and  exposing  it  to  the  intense  cold 
of  our  Northern  winters.  Basswood  honey  would  even  be 
benefitted  by  this,  as  it  would  lose  a  little  of  its  too  strong 
flavor. 

Basswood  and  clover  honey  are  more  apt  to  work  and 
ferment  than  any  other  class  of  honey,  even  when  thor¬ 
oughly  granulated,  if  they  remain  exposed  to  the  heat  of 
summer,  and  it  is  advisable  to  keep  these  two  kinds  in  a  dry 
cellar,  or  in  a  cool  and  dry  place  during  hot  weather.  A 
damp  cellar  would  be  objectionable ;  as  honey  is  hygrome* 
trie,  that  is,  readily  absorbs  moisture  from  the  air. 

Heartsease  honey  granulates  readily,  is  of  a  pale  yellow 
color,  and  very  tine  in  flavor.  It  is  probably  the  best  selling 
of  all  the  grades  of  extracted  honey,  except  if  to  be  used  by 


16 


EXTRACTED ~  HONEY . 


confectioners,  when  the  whitest  clover  and  basswood  are 
preferred. 

Spanish  needle  honey  is  of  a  dirty  yellow  color  when  gran¬ 
ulated  ;  buckwheat  is  rather  dark ;  and  boneset  is  the  ugliest 
and  poorest  in  quality. 


MARKETING. 

But,  while  to  produce  extracted  honey  was  comparatively 
easy,  to  dispose  of  it  proved  rather  difficult.  We  went  to 
our  grocery  stores  to  offer  it  in  bulk,  but  none  of  our  gro¬ 
cers  was  disposed  to  encumber  his  store  with  it.  We  then 
visited  the  drug  stores,  with  no  better  results.  One  of  our 
druggists,  taking  in  hand  the  vial  containing  our  sample  of 
the  brightest  and  whitest  clover  honey,  raised  it  between  his 
eye  and  the  window,  then  looking,  with  an  inquiring  eye, 
into  our  face,  he  said :  Is  that  honey  ?  I  do  not  buy  such 
stuff.”  Our^  honey,  clear  as  crystal,  it  was  in  July,  was  too 
fine  for  a  man  accustomed  to  handle  a  turbid  and  impure 
article. 

Our  first  crops  of  extracted  honey,  however,  were  sold 
readily  at  wholesale,  and  at  good  prices  ;  for  it  was  then  that 
the  wholesale  dealers  and  manufacturers  were  making  the 
Largest  profits,  by  mixing  the  honey,  which  they  bought 
from  bee-keepers  like  us,  with  cheap  substances,  like  glucose? 
which  kept  the  honey  from  granulating;  and  by  putting  it 
up  in  tumblers,  with  a  small  piece  of  comb  honey  in  the 
center.  This  honey,  or  rather  mixture  of  honey,  was  sold 
by  them  usually  at  lower  prices  than  they  had  paid  lor  the 
pure  honey.  But  ready  sales  in  this  way  did  not  last  long, 
for,  after  a  year  or  two,  the  markets  were  crowded  with 
this  drug;  and  we  were  left  to  market  our  honey  alone;  if 
we  did  not  want  to  sell  it  for  little  above  nothing. 

The  idea  of  retailing  honey  in  glass  tumblers  incited  us  to 
put  ours  in  glass  jars,  like  those  used  for  canning  fruits.  We 
then  went  to  town  and  ordered  five  thousand  labels,  for  our 


MARKETING . 


17 


glass  jars.  In  order  to  make  it  known  that  the  honey  was 
extracted,  we  had  written  the  words  Extracted  Honey  ”  in 
large  letters.  The  next  day  the  printer  delivered  to  us  a  few 
of  these  labels,  made  exactly  as  ordered.  But  great  was  our 
disappointment  when,  in  opening  the  package  of  labels, 
which  had  been  printed  a  few  days  later,  we  found  that  the 
word  “Extracted”  had  been  replaced  by  the  word  “Strained.” 
The  printer,  who  had  never  belore  heard  of  extracted  honey, 
had  concluded  that,  as  we  were  French,  we  had  made  a  mis¬ 
take,  and  by  the  word  “  extracted”  we  meant  “  strained.” 

We  put  some  of  our  glass  jars,  on  commission,  at  our  best 
groceries,  and  sent  the  rest  to  a  good  commission  merchant 
of  St.  Louis.  The  first  sales  were  good,  a  few  hundred 
jars  were  readily  sold  ;  but,  when  April  came,  more  than 
one-third  were  unsold ;  and  to  avoid  taking  them  back,  we 
consented  to  sell  the  honey  at  8  cents  per  pound.  This  was 
in  1869. 

The  main  reason  against  the  sale  was,  that  our  honey  had 
candied  in  the  glass  jars,  and  then  looked  like  lard  of  inferior 
quality.  All  the  customers  wanted  liquid  honey ;  ours  was 
not  considered  as  pure,  being  granulated. 

The  second  step  taken,  was  to  put  our  honey  in  wooden 
pails,  commonly  called  butter  pails,  coated  with  bees-wax  in¬ 
side,  to  prevent  soaking  and  leaking.  Many  of  those  who  had 
tried  our  honey,  wanted  larger  packages,  and  we  could  already 
dispose  of  a  great  deal  of  honey  in  this  shape.  But  we  soon 
found  that  these  pails  holding  25  pounds,  were  too  large  for 
retail,  and  we  concluded  to  try  tin  pails,  like  those  used  by 
workingmen  to  carry  their  dinner.  The  tin  pail  when  about 
full,  weighs  10  pounds  gross;  the  pail  is  weighed  with  the 
honey,  and  is  partly  paid  for  by  its  own  weight. 

Yet  the  sale  was  difficult  ;  although  we  were  gaining  cus¬ 
tomers  every  year,  a  great  many  grocers  were  disappointed, 
when  opening  our  pails,  to  find  our  honey  as  hard  as  butter. 
The  adulterators  manufacturers  of  glucosed  honey  helped  to 
maintain  this  dislike  of  granulated  honey,  by  asserting  that 
granulated  honey  was  impure,  and  that  pure  honey  should 
always  remain  liquid.  At  times  we  had  to  endure  the  rebuk¬ 
ing  of  an  angry  grocer  who  had  had  our  honey  candying  in 
his  store.  In  some  cases  we  had  to  take  it  back. 

We  since  resolved  to  make  war  against  the  adulterators  of 
sweets,  and  provoked  the  sending  of  the  petitions  to  Con- 


18 


EXTRACTED  HONEY. 


gress,  against  such  crimes,  which  nowhere  are  tolerated,  but 
in  this  land  of  liberty.  Our  petitions  were  buried  by  being 
handed  to  a  committee  that  never  reported,  and  the  adultera¬ 
tion  of  every  article  of  food,  goes  on  more  than  ever. 

We  thus  had  to  fight  against  two  difficulties,  first  the 
accusation  of  selling  impure  or  adulterated  honey,  because 
our  honey  was  always  granulated,  and  because  people  knew 
that  adulteration  is  to  be  expected  in  every  article  of  food  ; 
and  secondly,  the  competition  of  really  adulterated  liquid 
honey,  which  was  so  much  more  to  be  feared  because  it 
assumed  the  shape  of  the  liquid  strained  honey  of  bee- 
hunter  times.  The  adulterators  had  also  over  us,  the  advan¬ 
tage  of  employing  an  article  which  was  then  but  little  known 
to  the  p  iblic  in  general,  which  left  the  honey  bright  and 
clear,  while  we  had  to  contend  with  the  most  absurd  accusa¬ 
tions,  such  as  that  of  making  honey  with  sugar,  notwith¬ 
standing  the  fact  that  sugar  was,  and  has  been  ever  since,  on 
par  with  honey,  in  its  wholesale  price,  so  that  There  would 
have  been  no  profit  in  the  venture.  Others  thought  we  used 
flour.  All  these,  and  many  other  objections,  were  raised 
against  our  honey  ;  but  wherever  we  could  get  the  people  to 
try  it  unprejudiced,  we  invariably  succeeded  fin  establishing 
our  sales. 

We  always  found  an  easy  sale  for  extracted  honey  among 
foreigners— especially  German  or  French  ;  as  these  foreigners 
have  been  used  to  granulated  strained  honey,  which  has  been 
produced  for  centuries  in  most  all  parts  of  Europe.  Some 
of  these  foreigners  are  so  well  acquainted  with  it,  that  they 
prefer  it  to  the  very  finest  comb  honey,  saying  that  comb  is 
not  made  to  be  eaten. 

Once,  having  received  a  service  from  a  French  farmer,  liv¬ 
ing  a  short  distance  from  us,  we  selected  a  beautiful  large 
comb  of  nicely  sealed  clover  honey,  while  extracting,  and 
sent  it  to  this  farmer’s  family  after  having  carefully  laid  it  on  a 
dish.  Much  to  our  astonishment,  we  learnt,  a  few  days  after, 
that  the  good  French  housewife  had  put  our  nice  comb  in  a 
clean  towel  and  had  carefully  pressed  the  honey  out,  and 
melted  the  wax ;  and  besides,  that  she  was  very  much  aston¬ 
ished  at  our  having  sent  to  her  comb  honey,  when  we  had 
such  nice  extracted  honey  on  hand.  The  reader  will  easily 
imagine  that  henceforth  we  never  sent  to  them  anything  but 
extracted  honey,  much  to  their  satisfaction  and  ours. 


MARKETING. 


19 


Having  failed  to  succeed  in  the  sales  of  honey  in  glass  jars, 
on  account  of  the  regular  granulation  of  our  honey  and  of  its 
unattractive  appearance  in  glass,  since  it  looked  like  butter, 
or  lard,  or  even  worse,  we  concluded  that  the  only  thing  to 
be  used  for  small  retail  packages, 
was  tin.  Small  wooden  packages 
were  tried,  and  proved  inadequate, 
as  the  honey  soaked  or  leaked, 
more  or  less,  through  any  of  the 
cheap  packages  that  we  could  pro¬ 
vide,  unless  they  were  coated  with 
wax,  which  made  them  too  expen¬ 
sive.  But  tin  was  entirely  successful. 
We  already  had  the  10  pound  pail 
but  this  was  too  large  for  a  very 
large  retail  grocery  trade.  We  had 
a  5  pound  pail  made,  which,  though 
half  ot  the  former,  was  still  found 
too  large.  A  pail  half  of  this  was 
then  made.  It  was  a  pretty  little 
thing — a  real  toy — and  took  well. 
But  this  was  not^mall  enough  for 
some  customers,  and  at  the  request  of 
several  grocers,  we  divided  it  again, 
and  now  had  a  box  of  1£  pounds. 

We  first  wondered  that  such  a  small  package  of  honey 
could  be  sold  at  all,  as  it  contain  but  little  over  a  pound  of 
honey,  leaves  a  useless  box  afterwards,  and  costs  much  more 
than  the  rest.  But  the  fact  is,  that  this  small  package  is  the 
best  selling  of  all.  One  day  one  of  us  happened  to  meet  a 
laborer  of  our  acquaintance  carrying  one  of  these  boxes  of 
honey,  which  he  had  just  purchased  at  a  grocery.  “Why 
W — — ,  if  you  buy  some  ot  our  honey,  why  don’t  you  come 
to  our  house  and  buy  50  pounds  in  bulk  ?  You  will  get  it  for 
about  two- thirds  of  the  price  that  you  have  to  pay  for  it  in 
this  shape.”  “  Well,  yes  ;  I  know,  Mr.  Dadant,  but  you  see 
I  can  afford  twenty  cents  a  week  for  a  box  like  this  ;  but  I 
could  not  afford  seven  dollars  all  at  once.  So  I  buy  one  of 
these  boxes  every  Saturday,  for  my  Sunday.”  That  is  the 
reason  why  these  little  boxes  sell  so  readily.  Besides,  they 
incite  a  great  many  to  try  the  honey,  and  thus  lead  to  the 
sale  of  larger  sizes.  Still,  we  found  that  the  marketing  of 


20 


EXTRACTED  HONEY. 


honey,  even  after  it  is  put  up  in  the  most  attractive  shape,  is 
not  a  very  easy  thing  to  establish.  Honey,  in  any  shape,  is 
not  considered  a  staple  article,  i  e .,  not  only  it  has  not  a  regu¬ 
lar  price-current  quoted  on  all  markets,  but,  more  than  that, 
it  is  an  article  which  few  persons  will  buy  regularly.  Con¬ 
sumers  will  go  to  the  grocery  and  will  buy  tea,  coffee,  sugar, 
flour,  meal  and  butter,  but  very  few  make  it  a  custom  to  buy 
honey — not  that  they  dislike  it,  but  because  they  are  not 
used  to  it. 

The  grocer  will  therefore  hesitate  considerably  before  he 
invests  in  such  an  article.  Besides,  many  grocers  have  han¬ 
dled  more  or  less  honey  in  bulk,  comb  or  extracted,  and  have 
had  to  dip  it  out  of  some  vessel  or  other,  with  a  ladle ;  or 
else,  they  have  had  some  leaky  packages,  which  dripped 
honey  on  the  counter— left  a  sticky  reminiscence  of  their 
presence,  and  attracted  flies  and  bees. 

It  is  with  these  grocers  that  the  greatest  difficulties  will  be 
experienced  ;  and  yet  it  is  to  them  that  we  should  sell  our 
honey,  in  order  to  make  it  become  a  staple. 

When  we  go  into  a  strange  grocery,  where  we  are  un¬ 
known,  the  immediate  answer  of  the  grocer,  to  our  mention 
of  honey  is:  4 ■  I#lon’t  want  any  honey ;  I  have  no  sale  for 
if,  and  1  don’t  like  to  handle  it.”  Should  we  then  take  our 
leave  and  go,  there  would  be  but  little  hope  of  increasing  our 
sales.  We  have  to  study,  and  learn  to  imitate,  the  cunning 
and  the  perseverance  of  the  traveling  agent,  and  quietly, 
talk  it  out.  We  first  have  to  assure  the  grocer  that  we  only 
wish  to  show  him  our  goods  and  our  prices  at  his  leisure, 
and  that  he  can  then  refuse  to  buy,  if  he  chooses.  We  must 
first  show  him  why  he  has  no  sale  for  honey.  We  tell  him 
that  pure  honey  is  one  of  the  best  sweets  in  the  world,  to 
which  he  readily  agrees.  We  then  explain  that  honey,  not 
being  a  staple,  his  customersmever  come  on  purpose  to  buy 
honey  but  that  when  they  see  it,  they  are  tempted  to  buy 
it ;  that,  for  this  reason,  honey  should  be  put  up  with  large 
and  showy  labels,  and  placed  in  a  conspicuous  position,  so 
that  it  will  readily  catch  the  eye.  Whereupon  we  exhibit 
samples  of  our  pails,  with  the  label  glued  on  them.  About 
this  time  the  grocer  begins  to  feel  interested.  But  he  soon 
becomes  indignant,  when  he  finds  that  our  honey  is  not  comb 
honey,  but  extracted.  44  Strained  honey !  I  can’t  use ;  my 


MARKETING . 


21 


customers  would  not  buy  it,  because  it  is  usually  adulter¬ 
ated.” 

Then  we  begin  to  explain  that  he  must  not  mistake  our 
granulated  extracted  honey  for  the  ugly,  dirty  strained  honey 
of  bee-hunters— bee-killers,  which  does  not  granulate,  on 
account  of  having  been  exposed  to  great  heat;  that  the 
honey  which  we  offer,  is  really  a  pure  article,  raised  by  our¬ 
selves  ;  that  we  guarantee  satisfaction  rand  purity,  and  that 
this  guarantee  is  marked  on  all  our  labels.  And  we  also  tell 
him  that  the  best  test  of  purity  in  honey  is  its  granulation  ; 
since  adulterators  have  not  yet  found  means  to  imitate  the 
soft  granulation  of  honey,  with  any  of  their  compounds. 
We  give  him  to  understand  that  this  granulated  honey  can 
be  readily  melted  by  heat,  and  that  it  will  then  become  as 
clear  as  the  clearest  honey  ever  was ;  that  if  it  is  heated  to 
boiling,  it  will  lose  its  granulating  properties ;  a  'peculiarity 
belonging  exclusively  to  honey ;  but  that  boiling  will  also  injure 
its  quality,  by  evaporating  what  chemists  call  the  essential 
oils,  which  give  the  fine  flavor  to  the  honey.  At  last  we 
exhibit  a  sample  of  the  honey.  With  grocers  that  are  unac¬ 
quainted  with  us,  we  usually  begin  by  giving  them  yellow 
honey,  such  as  buckwheat4,  or  heartsease,  or  golden  rod. 
This  honey,  strong  in  flavor,  sells  better  to  the  unexperienced, 
who  are  always  afraid  of  getting,  sugar,  or  glucose.  It  is 
only  after  one  or  two  years  that  we  venture  to  offer  to  this 
grocer  our  whitest  clover  or  basswood,  which,  though  of 
superior  flavor,  are  objected  to,  on  account  of  their*  very 
beauty  and  quality.  In  every  case  we  try  to  furnish  some 
good  reference  to  the  grocer,  and  we  give  him  a  full  guaran¬ 
tee  of  satisfaction,  with  an  agreement  to  take  the  honey  back, 
if  it  does  not  prove  altogether  as  we  represent  it.  When  a 
dealer  is  well  satisfied  that  the  merchandise  which  he  sells 
is  pure,  his  customers  are  quite  likely  to  have  confidence  in 
it  themselves  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  if  he  is  in  doubt  as  to 
the  quality  and  purity  of  it,  he  will  have  but  little  chance  of 
selling  it,  unless  he  does  not  care  for  the  satisfaction  of  his 
patrons. 

We  must  therefore  spare  no  pains  to  fully  convince  our 
grocers  of  the  quality  of  our  goods. 

After  the  first  sales  have  been  made,  the  sales  always 
become  larger  and  easier.  Of  course,  occasional  objections 
are  made,  by  persons  who  are  unacquainted  with  the  proper- 


22 


EXTRACTED  HONEY. 


ties  and  qualities  of  good  honey  ;  but  these  are  easily  over 
come,  when  you  have  once  gained  the  confidence  of  the 
dealers.  In  order  to  meet  the  most  customary  objections,  we 
have  prepared  an  explanatory  back  label,  which  we  place  on 
the  pails,  especially  on  those  that  contain  the  whitest  honey. 

Slowly  and  steadily,  we  have  overcome  the  prejudices, 
which  we  at  first  encountered,  and  we  have  indeed  succeeded 
beyond  our  expectations. 

In  Keokuk,  where  we  have  been  selling  for  many  years,  we 
have  taken  orders,  without  any  samples ,  for  a  thousand  pounds 
of  honey,  at  our  price,  in  half  an  hour,  and  we  can  boast  that 
there,  at  least,  extracted  honey  has  become  a  staple  on  the 
market. 

During  the  years  of  1878  and  1879  owing  to  the  large  yield 
of  honey  throughout  the  country,  the  farmers  all  had  honey 
to  sell.  This  honey,  usually  comb  honey,  in  small  glass 
boxes  weighing  from  4  to  6  pounds,  was  brought  by  them  to 
town,  and  sold  for  what  they  could  get.  Thousands  of 
pounds  of  this  honey  were  sold  at  6  to  8  cents,  and  retailed 
by  grocers  at  10  cents,  while  these  same  grocers  kept  a  reg¬ 
ular  supply  of  our  extracted  honey  in  tin,  for  which  they  paid 
10  to  12  cents,  and  which  they  retailed  at  12  to  15  cents.  So 
that,  at  that  time,  our  extracted  honey  actually  sold  higher 
than  comb  honey. 

Let  us  here  make  one  remark  to  bee-keepers.  To  sell 
honey  well,  it  should  not  be  taken  to  market,  except  to  be 
delivered.  Honey  will  not  stand  handling  and  keep  clean, 
whether  comb  or  extracted,  whether  put  up  in  wood,  glass 
or  tin ;  and  the  first  requisite  of  success  is  to  have  your  honey, 
and  your  package  clean  and  in  good  order.  The  label  must 
not  be  soiled  by  flies  or  dust.  Take  a  sample  with  you,  and 
solicit  orders.  Let  your  sample  be  a  fair  specimen  of  what 
you  have.  Visit  the  grocers  on  the  day,  and  at  the  hour, 
that  they  are  least  likely  to  be  busy,  so  that  they  can  afford  to 
listen  to  you  patiently.  Do  not  ask  a  fancy  price  ;  let  your 
price  be  reasonable,  though  sufficient  to  cover  your  expense, 
and  pay  for  your  trouble.  Better  sell  low,  at  first,  and  raise 
the  price  after  the  market  is  created.  Low  prices  create  a 
demand  which  must  be  filled  afterward  seven  at  high  prices. 
Let  your  price  be  uniform,  and  sell  to  all  grocers  alike.  If  you 
fiud  it  necessary  to  change  your  prices,  during  the  season,  let 
all  your  customers  be  informed  of  it.  They  will  become 


MARKETING . 


23 


accustomed  to  it,  and  will  finally  accept  your  prices  without 
objection.  If  you  follow  these  instructions  you  will  find 
that  the  grocers,  as  a  class,  are  gentlemanly,  pleasant  and 
accommodating. 

Yet  it  is  not  in  every  case,  that  we  will  succeed  at  first ; 
some  dealers  will  altogether  refuse  to  hear  us,  or  to  be  con¬ 
vinced  by  our  arguments;  sometimes  because  they  have 
heard  opposite  arguments,  from  some  adulterator,  who  has 
glucosed  honey  to  sell,  and  who  keeps  them  in  the  opinion 
that  only  liquid  honey  is  good  ;  or  because  some  all-knowing 
bee-liunter  will  tell  them,  with  an  important  countenance, 
that  he  knows  all  about  honey ,  that  good  honey  remains  liquid 
all  the  time,  that  granulated  honey  is  made  with  sugar,  and 
that  he  knows  exactly  how  it  is  made.  Such  grocers  should 
not  be  lost  sight  of  entirely,  but  every  chance  should  be 
improved,  to  convince  them.  We  have  met  with  such  our¬ 
selves,  whom  we  had  entirely  given  up,  until,  seeing  all  their 
competitors  selling  our  honey,  they  would  finally  give  in  of 
their  own  accord,  and  politely  send  us  an  invitation  to  44 call 
in  and  take  an  order.”  Such  customers  often  become  the 
best. 

And  still  we  do  not  take  all  the  pains  that  we  should  take, 
in  securing  sales  and  putting  our  honey  forward.  We  would 
certainly  sell  much  more,  if  we  would  entirely  follow  the 
advice  which  we  give  to  others,  and  visit  all  the  groceries  of 
all  our  neighborboring  towns,  for  we  miss  many  sales  which 
we  ought  to  secure. 

For  shipment  to  great  distances,  we  put  up  our  tin  pails  in 
wooden  cases,  in  which  they  fit  exactly  as  follows: 

10  pound  pails,  6  in  a  case,  or  60  pounds. 

5  pound  pails,  8  in  a  case,  or  40  pounds. 

2J  pound  pails,  20  in  a  case,  or  50  pounds. 

1£  pound  boxes,  20  in  a  case,  or  25  pounds^. 

These  cases  are  labeled  44  HONEY,  HANDLE  WITH 
CARE,  THIS  SIDE  UP,”  and  can  go  to  the  world’s  end 
without  trouble,  after  the  honey  is  granulated. 

By  putting  up  the  honey  in  this  way,  we  do  away  with 
the  big  loss  usually  called  leakage .  If  we  ship  one  thousand 
pounds  of  honey,  to  the  other  end  of  the  country,  the 
returns  come  for  one  thousand  pounds,  without  an  ounce  of 
loss,  and  this  is  quite  an  item,  as  many  of  our  readers  must 
know.  Besides,  we  do  not  have  the  annoyance,  the  anxiety, 


24 


EXTRACTED  HONEY . 


for  fear  of  broken  combs,  so  disagreeable  in  shipping  comb 
honey. 

When  we  ship  to  a  large  city,  on  commission,  we  put  a 
price  on  each  size  of  pails,  and  our  commissioners  are  in¬ 
structed  not  to  deviate  from  it.  Of  course,  this  price  is  based 
on  the  actual  value  of  honey,  taking  into  consideration  the 
higher  value  of  honey  in  small  packages. 

In  this  way  we  have  no  trouble  in  selling  on  commission. 
By  experience,  we  know  about  what  the  commissioners  can 
sell  readily  of  this  honey  and  we  keep  them  supplied,  as 
nearly  as  we  can,  during  the  honey  selling  season,  which 
lasts  from  September  to  April. 


CONCLUSION. 

To  sum  up :  Comb  honey  is  a  fancy  article,  for  which  only 
fancy  prices  can  be  obtained,  aiid  these  prices  will  always  be 
changeable,  whilst  extracted  honey  must  become  a  staple 
article  sooner  or  later. 

Comb  honey  is  difficult  to  transport,  and  to  export.  Ex¬ 
tracted  honey  is  therefore  the  coming  honey.  California  will 
soon  see  before  her  an  inter-oceanic  canal  which  will  give 
her  a  full  scope  on  the  European  continent.  As  for  us,  bee¬ 
keepers  of  the  East  and  Middle  States,  let  us  improve  our 
home  market,  and  let  us  learn  how  to  produce  good  cheap 
honey.  In  the  meantime,  let  us  hope  that  Congress  will  see 
fit  to  put  an  end  to  all  food  adulterations  by  enforced  legisla¬ 
tion.  Let  us  hope  also  that  they  will  understand  the  propri¬ 
ety  of  placing  the  public  services  in  the  hands  of  the  people, 
and  will  organize  the  railroads  with  the  regularity,  the  hon¬ 
esty,  and  the  careful,  cheap  and  prompt  management,  which 
are  so  prominent  in  the  Postoffice  Department. 

Then  the  honey  resources  of  America  will  astonish  the 
Old  World  and  will  invade  it. 


1 


S !  If  yi  are  in  any  way  interestei  in 


113133 113 Si  <~yj=L  Kt03STE3',S^ 


Will  with  pleasure  semi  you  a  sample  copy  of  our  MONTHLY  GLFANINOS 
■  M  ItEE  CUETITRE,  with  a  descriptive  price-list  of  the  latest  improvements  in 
Hives.  H  i»«*y  Extractors,  Artificial  Comb,  See  ion  Honey  Boxe  .  all 

books  and  journals,  and  everything  pertaining  to  Bee  Culture.  Nothing  Patented. 
simply  send  your  address  on  a  postal  card,  written  plainly ,  to  A.  I  ROO  i  ,  Medina,  Ohio. 


Excelsior  Honey  Extractor ! 


FROM  EIGHT  TO  FOURTEEN  DOLLARS- 


I  he  Excelsior  is  made  entirely  of  metal,  and  is  consequently 
rerv  light,  strong  and  durable,  with  lugs  at  the  bottom  for 
irmly  attaching  to  tlm  floor  if  desired. 

I  he  strong  over-motion  gearing,  so  necessary  to  ease  in  run- 
iing  and  speedy  operating,  was  designed  and  is  manufactured 
expressly _  tor  the  Excelsior.  A  child  ten  years  old  can  operate 
he  machine  as  rapidly  as  it  can  he  supplied  with  combs. 

I  he  Comb  Basket  having  vertical  sides,  insures  the  extract- 
ng  power  alike  for  top  and  bottom  of  frames.  The  sides  of  the 
>asket  being  movable  and  interchangeable,  greatly  facilitate  the 
Iteration  oi  dusting  before  and  thoroughly  cleaning  after  use  if 


The  basket  can  be  taken  from  or  replaced  in  the  can  in  a 
noment,  there  being  no  rusty  screws  to  take  out  or  nuts  to  re- 
no  ve. 

At  the  bottom  of  the  can,  and  below  the  basket,  is  a  cone 
>r  metal  standard,  in  the  top  of  which  revolves  the  bottom  pivot 
d  the  basket,  thereby  giving  room  for  sixty  or  seventy  pounds 
u  honey  without  touching  the  basket  or  pivot  below. 

By  sending  your  name  and  address  ( written  plainly)  on  a 
lostai  card  lor  my  new  Illustrated  Catalogue  and  Price  List  for 
881,  you  will  receive  a  complete  description  of  the  Extractor 
na  all  other  useful  implements  for  the  apiary:  such  as  Hives, 
section  »oxes,  Comb  foundation,  etc  ,  as  wed  as  Queens  and 
>ees,  v_eeds  for  Honey  Plants,  and  all  the  leading  Books  on  Bee 
miture.  Honey  and  Beeswax  bought  and  sold  at  market  prices. 

Correspondence  solicited,  and  all  orders  promptly  attended  to. 

»  ALFRED  H.  NEWMAN, 

972  West  Madison  St.,  Chicago,  Ills. 


BARNB’S 

PATENT  FOOT-POWER  MACHINERY. 

Complete  Outfits  for  Actual  Workshop  Business. 


Lathes  for  Wood  or  Metal  Circular  Saws.  Scroll  Saws,  Formers,  Morti- 
sers.  Ten  oners.  Etc. 

MACHINES  OIV  TRIAL  IF1  DESluED. 

Mention  this  book,  and  send  for  Descriptive  Catalogue  and  Price-List. 

WT.  F.  «fc  JOHN  BARNES,  Rockford,  Ills. 
Outfits  for  tlie  Manufacture  of  Apiary  Supplies. 


OtheO 


BEE-KEEPERS  EXCHANGE. 


This  journal  begins  its  Third  Volume  with  the  Jan¬ 
uary  number.  It  is  a  live, 


Edited  by  a  practical  Bee-Keeper ,  and  richly  worth 
the  subscription  price,  which  is  only  75  cts. 
per  annum,  postpaid,  or  20  cents  on 
trial  for  three  months. 


SAMPLE  FREE. 


Our  Price  List  of  Apiarian  Supplies  is  now  ready, 
and  you  will  consult  your  best  inter¬ 
est  by  securing  a  copy  before 
you  buy. 

Address , 

J.  H.  NEELIS, 

Canajoharie,  JV.  Y. 


Ha!  Ha!  Ha!  Ha!  Ha!  Ha!  Ha! 


BINGHAM  BEE  SMOKER,  I  4 

The  first  practical  bellows  bee  smoker.  .3  {*< 

The  first  and  original  patent  smoker.  m  h 

The  first  never-failing  bee  controller.  &  & 

The  first  direct  draft  bellows  smoker.  ^  <5- 

The  first  to  burn  stove-wood  and  not  go  out.  m  S 
The  first  durable  bellows  bee  smoker.  S  ^  ^ 

The  first  to  create  a  demand  for  smokers.  a  0 

The  first  to  meet  the  wants  of  bee-keepers.  g  ^  -g 
The  first  cinder-proof  bellows  smoker.  cs  £  £ 

The  first  twenty  thousand  now  in  use.  ^  ®  ^ 

The  first  complaint  yet  to  be  received.  ®PP3  « 

The  first  smoker  yet  to  be  returned.  .2  £ 

W  H 

The  first  thing  for  bee-keepers  to  do,  to  save  impo¬ 
sition  and  money,  and  be  happy  and  safe,  is  to  send 
a  card  for  testimonials,  or  half-dozen  rates,  to 

BINGHAM  &  HETHERINGTON, 

OTSEGO,  MICH. 


Frances  Dunliam 


Inventor  and  Sole  Manufacturer  of  the 

Dunham  Foundation  Machine 


rfNEW  C:RCULAR  AND  SAMPLES  FREE.'CS 

Address  FRANCKS  DUNHAM, 

DEPERE,  BROWN  CO.,  WIS. 


Our  Honey  Extractors 


*AVE  received  the  Highest 
awards  at  all  places  where 
they  have  been  placed  on  ex¬ 
hibition,  and  they  have  been  exhib¬ 
ited  in  Competition  with  every 
Extractor  of  any  reputation  in 
the  United  States. 

First  Premiums  were  awar¬ 
ded  to  them  at  The  Michigan  State 
Fair  in  1879,  and  again  at  same  Fair 
in  1880.  First  Premiums  at 
IVortli  Eastern  Bee-Keep¬ 
ers  Convention, Feb,  llth 
to  13th.  IS  SO.  First  Pre¬ 
mium  at  Queens  Co.,  Agricul¬ 
tural  Society  (largest  Fair  in  the 
State  of  New  York),  Sept.  28th  to 
30th,  1880,  and  highest  award  at 
the  Great  American  Insti¬ 
tute  Fair,  Sept.  15th  to  Nov. 
27th,  1880. 

These  Machines  are  all 

metal,  made  up  very  strong, 
neat  and  durable.  The  cen¬ 
tral  shaft,  on  which  the  comb  basket 
revolves,  is  an  iron  tube  connected 
directly  with  the  mitre  gearing  above 
and  resting  on  a  tin  cone  at  bottom. 
They  are  provided  with  close  fitting 
tin  covers.  Handles,  Honey  Gates, 
etc.,  extract  all  sizes  of  combs,  and 
even  small  pieces  without  frames. 


No.  1,  Price  $11.00. 

PRICES. 

No.  I.  Holding  180  lbs.  of  honey  below  the  basket,  so  that  all  specks 
rise  to  the  top  and  the  honey  clear  as  crystal  runs  through  the  gate  at  the 
bottom  without  strainer,  -  -  -  -  -  -  $1100 

No.  2.  Extracts  all  sized  frames  or  pieces.  Gearing  and  Shaft  same  as 
No.  1,  but  has  bottom  flat,  and  slightly  inclined,  so  the  honey  will  run  to 
side  containing  spout  with  stopper,  no  handles  or  covers,  holds  50  lbs. 
below  basket,  --  -  -  -  e  -  -  8  50 


WAX-EXTRACTOKS,  BEE-HIYES, 

And  all  Implements  used  in  the  Apiary,  besides 

ITALIAN,  CYPRIAN,  AND  HOLY  LAND  QUEENS, 

Of  Purest  Strains  at  very  reasonable  prices.  Address, 


A.  J.  KING  &  CO.. 

Publisher'1  s  Bee-Keepers  Magazine ,  Bee-Keeper' s  Text-Book ,  etc. 

14  Park  Place,  X.  Y.  City. 


THE  ONLY  WEEKLY  BEE-PAPER  IN  THE  WORLD. 


THE 


American  Bee  Journal, 


THOMAS  G.  NEWMAN, 

Proprietor. 

No.  974  WEST  MADISOJV  STREET, 

Ills., 

Subscription,  -  -  $2.00  a  year  for  the  Weekly. 

Three  or  Six  months  at  same  rates. 

jgg^S  EUXTD  FOR  SAMPLE  COPY. 


MUTH’S 

HONEY  EXTRACTOR 

AND 


UNCAPPING  KNIFE. 


The  Extractor  is  made 
of  all  metal  and  is  al¬ 
ways  ready  for  use, 
easily  cleaned,  and 
will  last  a  life-time. 
In  fact  they  have  only 
to  be  used  to  be  ap¬ 
preciated.  Every  Bee- 
Keeper  should  send 
for  my  circular  giving 
details  regarding  the 


care  of  bees,  and  how  to  get  the 


CHiS.  F,  MUTH,  No.  976 
Central  At..  Cincinnati,  O. 


QUINBY  BELLOWS  SMOKER. 

The  fact  that  the  new  Quinby  Smoker  is  the  very  best  upon  the  market  is  so  well 
known  that  we  hardly  need  enumerate  its  superior  qualities. 

The  Double  blast,  which  enables  us  to  regulate  the  draft  according  to  the  fuel 
used,  diminishing  heat  and  increasing  smoke,  also  to  apply  the  smoke  cool  and  free 
from  sparks  or  ashes,  is  unquestionably  the  most  valuable  improvement  ever  made 
in  smokers. 

In  its  general  construction,  it  is  unequalled  in  quality  of  material  and  workman¬ 
ship  ;  it  distances  all  other  makes. 

As  a  result  of  these  points  of  superiority,  its  sales  were  larger  the  past  year  than 
ever  before.  Many  of  our  customers  were  so  well  pleased  with  it,  upon  comparing  it 
with  other  styles,  that  they  duplicated  their  orders,  some  of  them  several  times. 

TARE  NOTICE  that  the  Quinby  Smoker  took  1st  premium  at  the 
Michigan  State  Fair,  in  i860,  where  all  leading  smokers  were  present. 

The  Quinby  Smoker  with  upright  bellows  and  tube,  has  been  upon  the  market  five 
years  longer  than  any 'of  the  imitations.  Capt.  J.  E.  Hetherington,  says  of  Mr. 
Quinby  :  44  I  predict  that  this  invention  of  a  smoker,  combining  the  principle  of  an 

upright  tube  and  bellows,  will  in  the  near  future,  be  in  the  hands  of  every  bee-keeper 
in  the  land/’ 

We  have  the  latest  patent  granted  on  smokers,  which  fully  protects  all  who  buy, 
sell  or  use  it. 

We  do  not  do  our  wholesale  customers  the  injustice  of  sowing  broadcast  a  small, 
inferior  article,  at  a  price  so  little  above  cost,  that  it  catches  the  majority  of  orders 
from  those  who  are  uninformed. 

We  sell  two  sizes,  $1.25  and  $1.50.  By  mail,  25  cents  extra. 

QUINBY’S  NEW  BEE-KEEPING. 

BY  L.  C.  ROOT. 

This  is  a  work  of  270  pages  well  bound  in  cloth.  It  contains  100  illustrations, 
including  a  portrait  of  the  late  M.  Quinby.  Ir  is  fully  up  to  the  times,  and  is 
acknowledged  as  the  most  practical  york  published.  Price  postpaid  $1.50. 

VAN  DEUSEN’S  BEE-FEEDER. 

We  have  the  entire  control  of  this  feeder  for  the  coming  season.  As  a  top  feeder, 
it  is  known  to  be  one  of  the  very  best. 

We  have  devised  a  bracket  on  which  it  may  be  placed  to  feed  at  the  entrance  and 
side,  thus  making  it  the  best  for  all  purposes,  now  offered  to  beekeepers. 

Single  feeder,  by  mail,  ,40  cents. 

HONEY  KNIVES. 

We  have  had  as  much  experience  in  extracting  honey  as  any  beekeepers  in 
America,  and  have  a  knife  for  uncapping  which  is  not  surpassed.  Sent  by  mail, 
for  $1.00. 

We  furnish  everything  needed  in  practical  beekeeping;  for  we  make  beekeeping 
our  exclusive  business  and  know  what  is  necessary. 

Dealers  are  requested  to  send  for  our  wholesale  price  list,  as  we  offer  particular 
inducements  to  the  trade.  We  desire  to  place  our  circular  in  the  hands  of  every 
beekeeper.  Send  for  circular  and  price  list  to 

E.  C.  ROOT  &  BRO., 

Mohawk,  N.  Y. 


Chas.  Dadant  k  Son. 


IMPORTED  CYPRIAN  AND  ITALIAN  BEES, 

Q©I©s&!©s*  Queens  and  S.i^es^ 


Exiractors  of  Every  Dosorijtioo. 

Honey  Fails,  Kirns,  Sukers  of  all  Styles,  Foliation 
Machines,  Specialty  of  Comti  Foliations. 


WE  MANUFACTURE  THE 

BEST  PRINTED, 

BRIGHTEST, 


-AND- 


Purest  Foundation, 


Of  All,  both  for 

BROOD  CHAMBER, 

- AND - 

SURPLUS  BOXES. 


M^Send  for  Circular.  ”®a 


Chas.  Dadant  &  Son, 


HAMILTON,  Hancock  County,  Ills. 


I 


4 


3  U1 


£  I  . 


THE 

NORTHEASTERN  BEE-KEEPERS 
ASSOCIATION 


at  its  meeting  of  February  2d,  3d  and  4th,  1881,  held  at 


Utica,  U.  Y.,  awarded  to  Chas.  Dadant, 


for  the  Best  Essay  on  Wintering  Bees ;  to  C.  P.  Dadant, 


for  the  Best  Essay  on  Marketing  Honey,  and  to  Chas. 
Dadant  &  Son, 


for  the  Best  Comb  Foundation  for  Brood  Chamber. 


